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Topic: Military use of the space shuttle and size of the payload bay (Read 9094 times)

Between the darkness and the lightby Dwayne A. DayMonday, June 25, 2012

“The shuttle was in fact sized to launch HEXAGON. The size of the payload bay was determined by HEXAGON.” — Hans Mark

Hans Mark had a distinguished government career. He was director of Ames Research Center in the late 1960s, Secretary of the Air Force from summer 1979 until 1981, and deputy administrator of NASA from July 1981 until September 1984. But it was his service as Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from August 1977 until October 1979 where he may have left his most lasting impression. There are still a few people within the secretive intelligence agency who cringe, or curse, when they hear his name, for Mark was the person who forced them to use the Space Shuttle.

A newly declassified interview with Mark, performed by NRO Historian Gerald Haines in March 1997, sheds new light on his tenure at the NRO and his decisions about major programs then underway, particularly their relationship with the shuttle. Although some portions of the interview are deleted, it is not difficult to determine what he was speaking about since much of the story has appeared in previous books, notably a 2001 history of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology written by Jeffrey Richelson, The Wizards of Langley. Mark also wrote a 1987 memoir. At that time he was not allowed to discuss satellite reconnaissance because even the name of the NRO was classified. However, Mark wrote in his book that he was a strong advocate of the shuttle. This new interview makes it clear what that meant.

Would STS from VAFB have been just deployment of HEXAGON? Film retrieval? Film replacement? Reboost? Seems like would could have built fewer KH-9's if that had happened. In hindsight, of course, it was cheaper to build KH-9's.

Interesting, though, that the 60'x15' dimensions were driven by something the vehicle would never carry.

Dr. Hans Mark did assert that a switch of one program from Titan to Shuttle maxed out the shuttle bays width, allowing a more capable payload. One would have to assume it was some sort of antenna(s), but we can not know because it is blacked out.

Shuttle's almost 5 meter payload bay did start the modern trend of payloads that use 5 meter fairings. Dr. Hans Mark can be thanked for pushing for wider payloads, other wise without it everything would have been sized for a smaller diameter payload. Did the Titan of the period have a fairing larger than 10 feet (~3 meters)? Titan IIIC?

This whole diameter thing in the modern age does seem kinda odd when now giant antennae unfurl to tens or greater meters.